The Miscarriage Bill

HB 1 is being misconstrued as a bill that would make it illegal to have a miscarriage; would prosecute miscarriages; would investigate miscarriages, and/or would assume a crime in a miscarriage until it was proven otherwise.

Firstly, the text of the bill that is being misconstrued is this:

“Preparation and filing of reports of spontaneous fetal death shall be as follows:

206 (1) When a dead fetus is delivered in an institution, the person in charge of the institution

207 or that person’s designated representative shall prepare and file the report;

208 (2) When a dead fetus is delivered outside an institution, the physician in attendance at

209 or immediately after delivery shall prepare and file the report;

210 (3) When a spontaneous fetal death required to be reported by this Code section occurs

211 without medical attendance at or immediately after the delivery or when inquiry is

212 required by Article 2 of Chapter 16 of Title 45, the ‘Georgia Death Investigation Act,’ the

213 proper investigating official shall investigate the cause of fetal death and shall prepare

214 and file the report within 30 days; and

215 (4) When a spontaneous fetal death occurs in a moving conveyance and the fetus is first

216 removed from the conveyance in this state or when a dead fetus is found in this state and

217 the place of fetal death is unknown, the fetal death shall be reported in this state. The

218 place where the fetus was first removed from the conveyance or the dead fetus was found

219 shall be considered the place of fetal death.”

The current law for fetal death, as laid out in O.C.G.A. § 31-10-18 is:

“Registration of spontaneous fetal deaths

(a) A report of spontaneous fetal death for each spontaneous fetal death which occurs in this state shall be filed with the local registrar of the county in which the delivery occurred within 72 hours after such delivery in accordance with this Code section unless the place of fetal death is unknown, in which case a fetal death certificate shall be filed in the county in which the dead fetus was found within 72 hours after such occurrence. All induced terminations of pregnancy shall be reported in the manner prescribed in Code Section 31-10-19. Preparation and filing of reports of spontaneous fetal death shall be as follows:

(1) When a dead fetus is delivered in an institution, the person in charge of the institution or that person’s designated representative shall prepare and file the report;

(2) When a dead fetus is delivered outside an institution, the physician in attendance at or immediately after delivery shall prepare and file the report;

(3) When a spontaneous fetal death required to be reported by this Code section occurs without medical attendance at or immediately after the delivery or when inquiry is required by Article 2 of Chapter 16 of Title 45, the “Georgia Death Investigation Act,” the proper investigating official shall investigate the cause of fetal death and shall prepare and file the report within 30 days; and

(4) When a spontaneous fetal death occurs in a moving conveyance and the fetus is first removed from the conveyance in this state or when a dead fetus is found in this state and the place of fetal death is unknown, the fetal death shall be reported in this state. The place where the fetus was first removed from the conveyance or the dead fetus was found shall be considered the place of fetal death.

(b) The medical certification portion of the fetal death report shall be completed and signed within 48 hours after delivery by the physician in attendance at or after delivery except when inquiry or investigation is required by Article 2 of Chapter 16 of Title 45, the “Georgia Death Investigation Act.”

(c) The name of the father shall be entered on the spontaneous fetal death report in accordance with the provisions of Code Section 31-10-9.”

As you can see, there is not a lot of difference between the two. Further, even if it DID provide for the criminalization/prosecution/and etc. of miscarriages as a crime, people are innocent until proven guilty, and the burden of proof lies with the prosecution, so a woman would not have to prove that she did not murder her baby, the prosecution would have to prove that she did.

This bill only brings prenatal people up to the same legal recognition and protection as those that have already been born.

9 Responses to “The Miscarriage Bill”

Bobbysaid

Sections 2.1 through 2.23 (lines 130 through 293) of HB 1 specifically repeal all those areas in the Code where prenatal murder has been permitted and regulated. One of those regulatory Code Sections is 31-10-18(a) where there is a requirement to report prenatal murder (euphemistically termed “induced terminations of pregnancy”)

So I have stricken through, thus repealing, that sentence on lines 203-205. So all HB 1 changes from current law in this Code Section is the removal of the requirement to report prenatal murders. The reporting of miscarriages in that Code Section is current law and remains unchanged by HB 1. You will also notice that the current requirement for reporting prenatal murders on lines 203-205 is “in the manner prescribed in Code Section 31-10-19.” And that Code Section is repealed in Section 2.15 (lines 220-222) of the bill.

Article I, Section I, Paragraph XVI, of the Constitution of the State of Georgia, provides: “No person shall be compelled to give testimony tending in any manner to be self-incriminating.”

If I had not repealed the requirement that “induced terminations of pregnancy” be reported then I would be unconstitutionally requiring the contract killer to self-incriminate. Which could render the whole bill unconstitutional, in spite of the clear wording of Section 3 of the bill.

Prenatal murder? If this were just a phrase from some nutter ranting in the street, it would be risible. It isn’t, though. This is terrifying. I only hope you all eventually realise how far beyond sanity you’ve all gone in your obsessive opposition to abortion.

Abortion is inexpensive, safe and popular–roughly one-third of all women will undergo such a procedure during their lives. Criminalising it is as futile as prohibition.

Tony, thanks for your comment. Firstly, roughly 1 in 3 pregnancies end in abortion, this does not equate to 1 in 3 women having an abortion, as many abortions are on “repeat customers.” Secondly, it is not inexpensive. Cost estimates are around $300-$900 depending on how far along you are in your pregnancy. Thirdly, abortion IS NOT SAFE. Please quit buying into the myth. I think I’ll do a blog on abortion procedures soon; I am very familiar with common abortion procedures, and they are not safe at all. The risk of complications is pretty high, despite what the media and pro-choice groups would have us believe.

Finally, why should we not try to criminalize murder? We are talking about a human life. Not a clump of cells. A human life. I think we can both agree that it is NOT OK to kill people. The baby is a person before it is born.

My rough one-third figure comes from Guttmacher via Henshaw, DOI: 10.1363 / 3002498. The estimate is more sophisticated than a simple look at the raw abortion rate. In any case the proportion of women who have had abortions is quite high.

I do not consider $300-$900 to be expensive considering the long term beneficial effects such as alleviating long term poverty and drudgery. A mistimed baby is a career killer and in some cases is rather more serious.

Overall the opinion of the medical profession supports my view of the healthiness of the procedure. Indeed abortion is in such widespread use that any serious medical problems would be all too evident. It is unfortunate that in some states the legislature is requiring doctors to lie to the patient, spinning a yarn about risk that may differ considerably both with his own clinical opinion in a case and with the opinions of medical experts.

Finally you attempt to class abortion as murder. Don’t do that, it makes you sound like a nut.

The Guttmacher Institute was long affiliated with Planned Parenthood, and it’s numbers have always been skewed to reflect PP’s agenda. However, the number of women who have had an abortion is not the issue.

Please give me some hard proof the the majority of the medical profession agrees with you.

“A mistimed baby is a career killer.” Sir, are you a Christian? Not attacking; just asking. The Bible says that children are a blessing from The Lord, and you are calling them an inconvenience. It is very interesting that you approach it this way. Most women have an abortion because they feel they have no choice, and are often pressured into the “choice” by whatever prominent male figure (father, husband, boyfriend) is in their life.

I also note that you equate a “mistimed baby” with poverty and drudgery. Interesting. Got any facts to back that up?

As to the risk of abortion, surely you can see that blindly (in most cases. Ultrasound-guided abortions are not standard practice. It takes too long) inserting foreign objects into a woman’s uterus, poking them around, scraping things out, and etc. is NOT exactly risk-free. Stories of punctured uterine walls, intestines being pulled into the uterus, women bleeding to death — these are not just made up. They actually DO happen.

If the baby is a living person, then killing it is murder. I find no evidence to suggest that the baby is anything else than just that. So, killing the baby is murder.

Erinsaid

“According to a study conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies back in 1994, a first child was calculated to cost around $3000-$13,000 in the first year alone. When you take into consideration the upfront costs of every year after that, along with the hidden costs of loss of earnings for the primary carer (estimated to be around $160,000 by the AIFS in 2001), well, the figure starts to look quite scary.”
Bear in mind that Australia’s public health care systems picks up most of medical costs of those without private health insurance. Is there such a safety net in America or do people mostly have to pay their own medical bills? I recall this one dude having a go at trying to bring in some sort of universal health care system but I’m not sure how that worked out. I also do not consider $900 a lot of money in relation to how much it costs to raise a kid.
“Most women have an abortion because they feel they have no choice, and are often pressured into the “choice” by whatever prominent male figure (father, husband, boyfriend) is in their life.” Do YOU have any evidence to back this up? My feminist sense is tingling against this apparent slur against men. I have not seen ANY evidence to suggest that the majority of men are anything but supportive partners. In fact a Gallup poll from a few years ago demonstrated anti-abortion sentiment higher in men than in women. Men are just big meanies who hate babies and women are just poor little dears that can’t make decisions for themselves and take responsibility. Is that about right?

No feminist man-hating here. Most women do not speak about their abortions. Those that do will (usually) say that either they were pressured into having an abortion, or they felt they had to because of the consequences that would come about if the didn’t. When they are pressured, they usually say it was their father or boyfriend. When they are afraid of consequences they usually say they thought their boyfriend would leave them or their dad would kick them out. I’m not making a blanket statement, I’m speaking in generalities.

When we reduce children to nothing but cost we have devalued all human life to nothing but a bottom line.

Unfortunately, the universal health care (which is in total violation of the U.S. Constitution) did pass the house and senate. A lot of states have come together in a lawsuit to have the courts rule it unconstitutional, and some states are preparing to nullify it.